'Judges are in ambulance mood to jail people' - Atta Akyea fumes over Wontumi's sentencing

Lawyer for convicted Ghanaian politician Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, Samuel Atta Akyea, has made fresh remarks, this time criticising the manner in which judges handle politically sensitive cases in the country.

In a discussion on Newsfile shared on X and sighted by GhanaWeb on July 25, 2026, Samuel Atta Akyea alleged that judges presiding over political cases often appear to be in a hurry to prosecute defendants.

According to him, there is a noticeable difference between the pace at which political cases and civil cases are handled.

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Citing Chairman Wontumi’s case, Atta Akyea claimed the trial judge departed from the normal pace of judicial proceedings and was in what he described as an “ambulance mood” to prosecute the politician.

“There seems to be an indecent haste to prosecute what I call political cases. Because there’s a justice delivery system in which the judges are not, by themselves, in a hurry to prosecute people or adjudicate matters. You could go and do an audit of the adjournment mechanisms in the courts. If you do a proper audit, you will see that cases are treated in the normal course of events.

“This is a special case, and they take it to a special court. And the judge will tell you that you can’t go to another court and perhaps handle another case while I’m waiting. You need to come to this court… What is the meaning of that? It is sending a message to the generality of our people that let’s conduct an ambulance trial when it comes to political cases. But when we come to civil cases involving land matters…” he said.

Samuel Atta Akyea further alleged that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has influenced the handling of politically exposed cases.

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According to him, the government is pursuing such cases to create the impression that it is serious about fighting corruption.

“I mean, there are extraordinary energies devoted to criminal political cases, but the rest of the cases, including other criminal cases, do not receive the same attention. So there is a basis for the view that, as if the judges are in an ambulance mood to jail people.

“…This is a very serious campaign: ‘If you are very corrupt, we’re going to jail you.’ And guess what? That kind of frenzy in the NDC and at Jubilee House should not find expression in a court of competent jurisdiction. A court of competent jurisdiction should not concern itself with how many people can be jailed just so it can be said that the government is politically consequential,” he added.

Watch the video below:

By all means prosecute but where from this haste to take a man’s freedom away from him? The Wontumi judgement is dangerous for our jurisprudence because the judge made the judgment out of pure conjuncture and not law or evidence!!!

Wontumi didn’t benefit from the proceeds from… pic.twitter.com/9QOmPaFYMF

— DANQUAH-BUSIA-DOMBO TRADITION 🟡⚫️🟢 (@sonofjacob98) July 25, 2026